


Somewhere to call home

by StevetheIcecube



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Fluff, M/M, Torna Tuesday, gays!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-22 06:43:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17055101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StevetheIcecube/pseuds/StevetheIcecube
Summary: Right in front of his eyes, Jin’s dream was coming true. Okay, maybe it wasn’t the dream he’d always had. But it was getting pretty close.He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again, and the sight of the empty room he was standing in was still just as charming. Even if the walls were stained with something he didn’t want to think about and currently their only furniture was a double mattress for a bed they didn’t own yet, it was…“Home sweet home,” Malos said.





	Somewhere to call home

Right in front of his eyes, Jin’s dream was coming true. Okay, maybe it wasn’t the dream he’d always had. But it was getting pretty close.

He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again, and the sight of the empty room he was standing in was still just as charming. Even if the walls were stained with something he didn’t want to think about and currently their only furniture was a double mattress for a bed they didn’t own yet, it was…

“Home sweet home,” Malos said, and even with the usual sarcastic drawl in his tone, Jin could hear the smile on his face without even looking. “I guess we own this dump now.”

Jin nodded. A flat, probably cheaper than it should have been considering how nice the area was and how it had so much potential, on the third floor of a seven floor building just outside the educational centre of Torigoth. And it belonged to them. “Well, the lease is under your name.”

“The money is from daddy dearest,” Malos said with a shrug. “An expensive way to kick me out, sure, but it worked and I think we’ve benefited from it.”

Jin smiled. It wasn’t often that he could say something nice about Malos’ very distant father who probably just got Malos out of the house so he could mope around on his own, but this was one of those times. Rich parents were great. “We maybe should have brought at least a chair with us.”

“This house shall have no chairs,” Malos said with a dramatic flourish of his hand. “We sit on bean bags like kings.”

Jin couldn’t stop the laugh escaping his mouth. Sounded like a plan and something he definitely wanted to inflict on their friends. “Can we?” he asked.

“Of course,” Malos said, returning Jin’s grin. “We own it, after all.”

“Who let us buy a flat?” Jin asked, laughing as he thought about what a disaster it was going to be once they’d finished buying stuff for it.

“Someone who wasn’t ready for the sheer force of our chaotic energy combined with money,” Malos returned.

“Is anyone ready for that?”

“Nope.”

-

One bed, four bean bags, and a coffee table later, the flat was starting to look a bit more like a home. Jin had pulled Malos’ three cacti that he had somehow managed to not kill from the boxes and put them on the windowsill, next to the pre-housewarming gift of a potted herb plant Lora had given him.

The next time they went to buy furniture, they got bookshelves, and a desk, and a desk chair that Jin was determined would be the only vaguely upright seat in the flat. He also put some coloured light bulbs into the basket, next to the ‘kids’ coat pegs which were coincidentally in the colours of the rainbow.

Once all of that was back and their clutter started to fill up the flat, it really started to feel like a home. Malos bought a wicker chest of drawers for their clothes and the suitcases finally managed to get shoved out of the way. Jin bought a second hand rug that was shaped to look like a very fat grey cat and put it down under the beanbags and in front of their slightly battered TV with the tiny crack at the top of the screen.

Then Malos finally got his muscular handyman arms out (after a week of hiding them under sleeves so they didn’t get caught on the sharp edges of new furniture) and hung the corkboard up, and that was when true decoration chaos was unleashed.

Okay, maybe the fairy lights were a bit twee and student, but they were bright and soft and shaped like stars draped across the length of one of their walls and it looked really nice, Malos had to admit that. And they probably didn’t have the money for the cute Pippito themed pins for the board, but Jin hadn’t been able to resist. After all, they had to have something to pin up all the photos and posters and assorted bits of art that they’d bought each other over the years.

When Jin was done meticulously fixing everything to the board in a manner that appealed to the slightly jumbled aesthetic of their new home, he collapsed onto one of the bean bags (at some point, they were going to regret forgoing real chairs, but right now it was still hilarious and comfortable) and surveyed his work. Malos flopped down on top of him and Jin let out a soft noise of surprise.

“I can’t see it all if your big head’s in the way,” he complained, nudging the back of Malos’ neck with his nose.

“I can see it,” Malos said. “Looks nice. Artsy.”

“I think that was the general theme we were going for,” Jin said. “So, can we invite people round for housewarming now?”

“Sure, if we can fit them all in,” Malos said. “I imagine you want to invite your lot. And Haze and Lora will probably bring their kid, won’t they?”

“Is the flat child safe?” Jin asked, glancing around and spotting at least one dick-shaped joke object that they’d managed to pick up somewhere over the years. There would probably be more in view if Malos got up off his lap. “Nope.”

“I’m sure he’ll live,” Malos said. “Problem is, if I invite Minoth, there’ll be a gaping obvious mutual friend hole in the party. But if Patroka and Mythra end up in the same room again in my lifetime it’ll be too soon.”

“It would be too soon if they were both at your funeral,” Jin said with a chuckle.

“Already planning on taking my money?” Malos asked, twisting round to straddle him. Jin wasn’t entirely sure how he was doing that while they both remained on the bean bag but it was very hot.

“Have to marry you first,” he said, leaning in to kiss Malos’ forehead. “I think we should invite your sister and those friends of hers to. That takes us up to…” he counted on his fingers for a moment, “nine, plus the two of us is eleven. There’ll inevitably be someone who doesn’t show up, so that’s not too much.”

“But two of them are actual children,” Malos reminded him. “And the rest of them may as well be.”

“I think Lora’s fairly mature,” Jin said, jumping in to defend his friend. Lora was mature. Most of the time. She’d been the one to take on the ‘if you hurt him I will kill you’ speech when him and Malos were getting serious (he’d done the same for her and Haze, not that either speech had been strictly necessary).

“She’s more like a twelve year old with her first crush whenever she’s anywhere near Haze,” Malos said, and Jin had to concede a point to him there. They were adorable, but Lora was a bit of a mess around her wife.

“So we’re inviting two small children and seven large children into our home,” Jin said. “What could possibly go wrong?”

Addam arrived first, Mythra and Milton in tow as always. They were squabbling, also as always, and Jin was already taking a mental inventory of all the breakable objects near the edges of their rightful place and making a mental note to move them to a safer spot. “Jin!” he said, a big grin on his face. “Good to see you again. And Malos, too, I’m glad you’re well.”

Jin didn’t know exactly what the deal was between Malos and Addam but there was something going on there and it probably had equal parts to do with Mythra and Minoth (Addam seemed to cart around a group of people whose names start with m, without fail. Maybe that was his issue with Malos). But he smiled back, because the group were his guests and appeared to have brought food with them.

He only hoped it wasn’t cooked by Mythra.

“Good to see you too,” he said. “Come on in. We’re a bit lacking in places to sit but you got here first, so you get to reserve something.”

Addam glanced around. “You are a bit,” he said with a laugh, and made his way into the flat that was looking smaller by the second. Once he came inside, Malos poked his head around the corner from where he was cooking.

“Mythra,” he said, and then they did that thing where they held unflinching eye contact for an inhuman amount of time before Mythra cracked a smile and they both burst out laughing. Jin saw Milton roll his eyes and flop down on the nearest beanbag. “Did Minoth not come with you?”

“He said he’d be late, as usual,” Mythra said. “Who knows when he’ll get here? Hopefully before someone starts drinking.” She shot a look at Addam. Jin couldn’t wait for his friends who didn’t all have weird tensions between each other and his boyfriend to arrive.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to wait long, and after only a few minutes of making small talk with Addam about whatever project he was working on now (Jin had forgotten what his job actually was and at this point he was too afraid to ask, what with the reference to swords and explosions), the doorbell rang again.

This time it was Akhos and Patroka who he welcomed to his new home. Patroka said that it was ‘okay’, which was a glowing compliment that made Jin light up inside slightly. Akhos started waxing poetic about the positioning of the furniture, and Jin managed to grasp about half of what he was talking about before Patroka told him to shut up and leave it for an event that wasn’t a party.

The flat was starting to feel quite full already at this point, and also slightly awkward because Patroka and Mythra didn’t tend to get along all that well, and Akhos’ artistic sensibilities clashed with Milton’s actual sensibilities. It certainly made for lively conversation, but it was the kind that Jin felt like he had to supervise in case something happened and his flat ended up burned to the ground.

Fifteen minutes later, he was starting to get a tiny bit concerned that the people he’d really wanted to invite had been held up by something or other. Of course, he knew that Haze and Lora had lives outside of going to a housewarming party. They had a kid, and jobs, and sometimes emergencies did pop up, but...he’d really wanted them to come.

The first moment he got the chance with a break in the conversation, he checked his phone. Nothing from either of them, which probably meant they were on their way and stuck in...something. They were catching the bus, so maybe it had been delayed, or the traffic was bad, or Mikhail had climbed on something and broken his ankle so they were taking longer than normal.

When even Minoth arrived before the three of them, Jin was starting to get pretty concerned. Especially considering the levels of testosterone in the room were rising to very unwanted levels now Malos, Minoth, and Addam were all stood in the same room. Jin was concerned enough to shoot Lora a text asking her if everything was okay.

‘Yes,’ came the almost immediate reply. ‘Walking taking a bit longer than expected.’

Jin’s brow furrowed in worry at the statement, but as long as they were coming and things were going to be okay. They’d be here soon enough, or at least they’d definitely arrive at some point, so he didn’t need to worry. This party wouldn’t be a complete disaster.

To try and allay his worries, he attempted talking to Addam to try and stop the brewing awkwardness in that corner of the room. And okay, he understood why Addam was being the tiniest bit protective of Minoth, but Minoth was also an adult and so was Malos. The past that was behind the two of them was complicated, sure, but it was past and they were very clearly friends now.

The problem was, Addam kept being drawn back into their conversation. So Jin attempted to talk to Minoth, but leaving Malos to talk to Addam without supervision was a no go as well. And trying to remove Malos from this conversation would definitely result in Malos passive aggressively stealing the duvet tonight, so he couldn’t do that either. It was a mess, so Jin just had to cross his fingers and hope it wouldn’t turn into a bad mess when the doorbell rang for hopefully the last time.

It was Mikhail at the door, very slightly out of breath. He was carrying a small basket, but when Jin offered to take it from him, he shook his head fervently. Then he waved to Jin and walked into the flat without saying a word.

He was...some kid, for sure. One day Jin would hold half a conversation with him, anyway. He watched as the boy made a beeline for Milton and plopped himself down on the floor in front of him. That’d be fine, but it begged the question as to where on earth his mums were, and why he had a box.

“Mikhail, where are-”

“Wait,” the boy said, before immediately turning back to Milton. Okay, well that was helpfully lacking in detail, but Jin got the message. So Jin waited.

A couple of minutes later, he heard the sound of two people climbing the stairs very slowly. Eager to see them both again, Jin left the hopefully not too disastrous party behind him to go and see what was going on. When he reached the stairs, the sight that met his eyes...okay then.

Struggling to carry it between them, Haze and Lora were trying to move a very large cardboard box up his not-suitable-for-wheelchair-users building stairs. Because there was no lift and why on earth had they decided to bring a huge box of stuff?

“Jin!” Lora said, her face bright red but still smiling. “Come and help us with your gift? It’s very heavy.”

“I can see,” he said with a smile. “Are we going to take it to the flat in one shot?”

“Of course,” Lora said. “If we put it down I don’t know if I’ll ever manage to pick it up again.”

“That’s not encouraging,” Jin said. And then he took part of the weight of the box and his knees nearly gave way because dear Architect that was heavy. Really heavy. “Ouch. You carried this on the bus?”

“It was certainly a challenge,” Haze said. “But I think it’ll be worth it. You’ll see.”

Jin nodded, and focused on carrying the box and walking backwards to the flat. Whatever this was, he hoped they had space for it. “I’m presuming I’m not allowed to ask what it is,” he said.

“Not at all,” Lora said. “You’ll find out soon anyway, silly. We just have to get it into your flat.”

“You really didn’t have to do this,” Jin said.

“You missed the part where we wanted to,” Lora reminded him. “I asked you if it was okay to buy you something, and you said it was.”

“I meant one thing, not lots of things,” he protested. He really didn’t want them going out of their way for this. 

“Shush,” Haze said. “We wanted to get you this, and you’ll like it.”

“Is that a threat?” Jin asked, a smile on his face despite the extreme effort of carrying the box.

“Absolutely,” Haze returned, just as they managed to lug the box in through the front door. There were brief noises of surprise from the rest of the people in the flat as they all tried to move out of the way to give the box enough space.

“What on earth,” Malos said, trying to sound annoyed by the inconvenience but failing entirely. Of course he loved this.

“It’s our gift,” Lora said with a grin and a flourish as she attempted to catch her breath. “We carried it from home.”

“If you’d just let us know I would have brought the car,” Addam said. “We could have helped you with it.”

“More drama this way,” Lora said with a shrug, pushing Addam out of his bean bag and onto the floor to sit down on it herself. “I can’t believe you don’t have chairs, Jin. That’s so you.”

“We have chairs,” Malos objected.

“Chair,” Minoth corrected.

“We have chair,” Malos said, letting out a sigh that sounded decidedly world-weary. “Go on Jin, open the box up.”

“It’s for you too,” Haze said. She looked exhausted but she was still practically vibrating with excitement, presumably for their reaction. Haze loved giving gifts (that said, the shaking might just be muscle exhaustion at this point).

“Fine,” Malos said. “I will help open this obscenely large box.” He took one of the cardboard flaps, and Jin took the other. Jin made eye contact with Lora, and she shot him a tired thumbs up.

They opened the box, and Jin was immediately confused. It was...another box. He lifted the box out, and opened it. Inside was...a crate. Malos lifted the next item out; a tray. A bag of what looked like sawdust. A feather duster. Two metal bowls. A bag of small brown pellets.

That was when it clicked, and Jin’s eyes shot up to Lora again. She had a huge grin on her face. “You didn’t,” he said.

“Oh, I did,” Lora said. “Well, we did. It was Mik’s idea. And Haze was the one who went to the shelter and put all the lists together. I think I just provided the money and the heavy lifting, honestly.”

Mikhail stood up, and handed Jin the basket he’d been carrying since he walked in. Now Jin understood. “She’s probably not sleeping anymore,” he said. Jin accepted the basket and, looking at Malos who was trying and failing to keep his face in a cautiously neutral expression, lifted the lid.

Inside, there was a tabby ginger kitten. “She doesn’t have a name yet,” Haze said. “She’s twelve weeks old now. She had a pretty bad start to life but it seems like she’s doing okay now.”

“Nia,” Patroka suggested, and Jin shot her a Look. She laughed.

“Milton,” Mythra said, and let out a wicked laugh as Milton jumped up from his seat and lunged across the room at her.

Jin looked at Malos, who nodded. “You can name her,” he said. “In return, you have to clean that.” With a nod, he indicated the litter tray, and Jin laughed. Then he looked over to Lora, who was watching him with a huge smile on her face.

“Rynea,” he suggested, and her smile softened.

“It’s a perfect name,” she said. “Welcome to your new home, Rynea.”

**Author's Note:**

> I had so much fun writing this you have No Idea holy heck. Please leave a comment if you enjoyed! :) I'll be back next week with the last (holy shit) Torna Tuesday of the year.


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